SBI Charges Law Enforcement Officer for Smuggling Conscripts to Transnistria for $7K

Officers of the State Bureau of Investigation have completed a pre-trial investigation into a law enforcement officer accused of trying to set up an illegal business of smuggling conscripts across the border.

According to the SBI, the indictment was sent to court.

The accused, according to the investigation, was looking for men who wanted to avoid mobilization and offered them illegal travel to unrecognized Transnistria, bypassing official checkpoints. The cost of this service was 7 thousand US dollars.

The law enforcement officer promised to personally escort those wishing to leave the country at night to a designated place on the border and show them how to cross it independently without the control of the services. He claimed that he had organized such smuggling several times before. SBI officers detained the man on January 31 while he was receiving the full amount for the promised assistance. Investigators noted that the detainee had once served in the Border Guard Service.

The man is accused of organizing the illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine and obtaining illegal benefits (Article 332, part 3, Article 369-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine).

The sanctions of the articles provide for up to 9 years in prison.

In early March, the State Bureau of Investigation, together with border guards, detained an official of a law enforcement agency in Odesa region on suspicion of setting up a scheme to smuggle men liable for military service across the state border to the Republic of Moldova.

Prior to that, prosecutors sent to court an indictment against the organizer and four members of an organized group on the fact of illegal transportation of persons across the state border of Ukraine committed by an organized group for mercenary motives.

Кирило Бойко